


just the touch of a hand

by scepticallyopenminded



Series: nothing feels like you [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Derek is a bit creepy, Full Shift Werewolves, M/M, Mates, Stiles is 15-17 if that bothers you, but it's not his fault, but then Derek is 16-18 so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 09:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3686262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scepticallyopenminded/pseuds/scepticallyopenminded
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things – as things often do in Stiles’ life – get a little crazy (a lot crazy) when, a couple of weeks before his seventeenth birthday, he wakes up to – not a wolf, but an amount of naked flesh, cuddled up to him where Dude fell asleep the night before. Stiles screams, a bit, flopping around and falling out of his bed, getting to his knees to see a naked – Derek Hale, sitting up on his bed, eyes wide. He seems to realize something a second later, because he glances down at himself and squeaks, pulling sheets up around him just as Stiles’ dad opens the door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just the touch of a hand

**Author's Note:**

> guess what's finally out. I skipped doing homework yesterday to instead write this. and it's by and far the longest one shot I've ever written (as of yet).  
> also totally went cliché and took the title from "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran.  
> OH and also in case you didn't know this is a longer version of [you belong with wildflowers](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3515771), which was part of my 30 day challenge.
> 
> Oh and also for reference [this is what I figured](https://www.google.com/search?q=young+derek+hale&safe=off&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_zUgVei-PIPcsAXXsIHwAQ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#safe=off&tbm=isch&q=tyler+hoechlin+7th+heaven&imgdii=_) Derek would look like in this fic, bc that's what Tyler looked like when he was around 18 (he was on 7th Heaven from like 16ish to like 20ish or so).

Stiles walks home from school most days. His dad works a lot, and it’s not as if the school is far from his house. It’s not a problem, not at all, except that – except that one day, when Stiles is fifteen, he’s walking up to his front door, is on the last step until he’s on the porch, when he sees – a dog, curled up at the front door, apparently asleep.  

He freezes up, because he actually isn’t quite sure how to deal with this. He doesn’t know if the dog is wild or not, if it’s vicious or not. Stiles thinks that maybe he should back off, maybe he should go around through the back door to the house, maybe he should call his dad – yeah, he should call his dad. He pulls out his phone to do just that, but the dog wakes, then, head popping up. It stares at Stiles for just a moment before it gets up, yipping happily as it bounds over to him.

And it. It _circles_ around Stiles, sniffing at his feet and his legs. The dog isn’t large, it’s head only reaches Stiles’ thigh, but it isn’t _small_ , either, and Stiles is stock still for a moment as the dog sniffs. Then it proceeds to step back a bit, sits on it’s hind legs and looks at Stiles with gorgeous golden eyes, and lolls it’s tongue out.

Stiles laughs a little, mostly at himself, because this dog is anything _but_ vicious. He steps forward after a moment and bends down to pet it. It pushes it’s head up into Stiles’ and – and Stiles _totally does not squeak_ , it’s just it’s adorable, really. He is _not_ ashamed to admit how much he loves dogs, has always; it was his favourite thing as a child to go to work with his dad and see an off-duty police dog, because when they were off-duty they were the sweetest, cutest little things. And this dog was no different.

“So who do you belong to?” he asks it, pushing his hand through the thick dark fur of it’s neck, where no collar or identification of any kind seems to be. The dog yips at him again, bright and happily, as Stiles gets back up, taking out his keys as he watches the dog, thinking. He could get some food, keep the dog around until his dad gets home, and – and maybe, he thinks as it continues to sit there, looking at Stiles calmly, with wide eyes, maybe if it doesn’t belong to anyone, they can keep it, because Stiles has always wanted a dog, and his dad promised him a couple of years ago that they could possibly get one at some point and here, look, an opportunity.

As soon as he has the door opened, though, the dog pushes itself through Stiles and into the house.

“Hey!” Stiles calls after it, but it’s already gone, padding up the stairs, and Stiles sighs a bit, shuts the door, and follows it.

He finds it on his bed, all curled up, snout under it’s front paws, looking up at him as he walks in, and he can’t help but snort at the look on it’s face – guilty, maybe, maybe pleading. Stiles laughs again, because this dog is all black fur and golden eyes and happiness and cuteness, really. He puts his backpack on his desk chair and sits on his bed, reaching over to run his fingers through the dog’s fur some more.

“You want some food?” he asks, and the dog perks it’s ears up and lifts it’s head up at that, and Stiles laughs because it clearly understands what _that_ means. He kicks his shoes off and goes back down to the kitchen, the dog right behind him. It sits in the doorway, watching as Stiles moves about making a sandwich.

He goes back up to his room, the sandwich on a plate, when he’s done, dog at his feet. When he sits down on his bed the dog jumps up, sitting at the end and watching Stiles. It waits patiently, only eating when Stiles rips off a piece of the sandwich and holds it out on his palm, and when the sandwich is gone it licks his hand and curls up while Stiles pulls out his biology homework to start on.

At some points, Stiles falls asleep reading his textbook, and wakes only to hear the front door shutting and shuffling downstairs – his dad, Stiles registers as he looks at the clock to see it’s passed six. The dog – the dog is not there. He gets up quickly; if the dog and his dad meet without him, his dad is gonna freak. Except – Stiles looks in all the upstairs rooms, doesn’t find it, and rushes downstairs to – to not find it in the living room, either, or the dining room, or the kitchen, where his dad is.

“Hey,” the Sheriff says from where he’s sorting through the mail on the kitchen island, “How was school?”

“Um, good,” Stiles says, rubbing his eyes, still sleepy, “Got an A on my English test so that was good.”

“Good job kiddo,” his dad replies, throwing some mail away, “Pizza good for dinner?”

“Yeah, yeah, sounds good,” Stiles replies distractedly, looking out the kitchen window to see if the dog somehow made it out into the backyard, but – nope.

Maybe, he thinks to himself, it was all his imagination, because how else could the dog have gotten out?

***

Except – less than a month later Stiles trudges home after lacrosse practice (because he made the lacrosse team – fuck yeah!) to find the dog sitting at his front door again. As soon as it sees Stiles it comes running down the driveway, stopping at Stiles’ feet.

“You’re back,” Stiles says, and the dog barks in reply, again leaning into him when Stiles reaches down to pet it.

“You coming in again?” he asks it as he pulls his keys out. The dog trots along beside him, so he figures that’s a yes, and when he opens the door it squishes passed him and into the house, sniffing all over the living room.

“Y’know, if you’re gonna keep coming here I’m gonna need something to call you. You’re a dude,” he reasons, watching the dog sniff at the couch, “So how about…how about just Dude,” he tries. The dog stops where he’s sniffing and gives Stiles an unimpressed look. Stiles shrugs, going toward the stairs.

“Dude it is then”

Stiles _swears_ the dog – Dude – rolls his eyes before he takes off after Stiles.

***

The thing is, that night his dad is working the late shift, won’t be home until early the next morning. Stiles showers as Dude sniffs around his room for a bit, and when he comes out of the bathroom he’s belly-up on Stiles’ bed, growling and kicking in his sleep.

Which – is really fucking adorable, okay?

So he goes over and scratches his belly for a bit. Dude doesn’t seem to wake up at that, but as soon as Stiles gets up and goes out his bedroom door to get some food, Dude’s right there at his feet.

It’s late, so as Stiles makes dinner (Doritos and a bowl of cereal) for himself, he pulls up a page about good human food for dogs and makes up a quick bowl of scrambled eggs with leftover chicken and cheese, and gets an apple and cuts it up, half for himself and half for Dude. He carries the food out to the living room, gives Dude his bowl and then gets another bowl for water, and when he goes back out to the living room Dude is done with his food and is curled up on the end of the couch.

Stiles snorts, puts the water bowl down and sits down next to the dog, picks up his own food and turns on the TV.

*****

Stiles watches some TV, does some homework, plays video games for a while, and the dog sticks around. When it hits midnight and Stiles decides bed is in order because he has to be up for school by six thirty, the dog curls up at the end of his bed and they go to sleep, together.

Of course, when he wakes up the next morning to his dad opening his door, the dog is gone. He expects it, but it still confuses him.

*****

It keeps happening, though; the dog is there when Stiles gets home, only when his dad isn’t, and it’s always gone when his dad, or Scott, come around.

Stiles starts to think he’s going crazy, or that the house is haunted by a dog-like ghost only he can see, until one Sunday, as he’s doing homework in the park down the street from his house, he sees the dog on the edge of the forest – not alone. There’s another bigger, dark brown dog, and a smaller, light brown with a white belly. They’re all romping around with each other, and it’s not until he hears one of them – the big chocolate-coloured one – give a short howl that he realises – they aren’t dogs.

They’re _wolves_.

Which. Would probably scare him more if he hadn’t already, many times over, met, fed, and fallen asleep with Dude. Who hasn’t mauled him yet, and looks completely harmless and _adorable_ , playing with the other two wolves. They’re chasing each other and he catches the smallest one pouncing on leaves as they fall from the trees and all in all, it’s not very scary at all, wolves or not.

When Dude shows up that Tuesday at his doorstop as Stiles gets home, he pets him as usual then asks him, “You’re a wolf, aren’t you?” and Dude, as usual, yips in response, licking at Stiles’ nose.

“Yeah,” Stiles laughs, scratching behind Dude’s left ear, his favourite place. Dude pushes into his hand with a small whine as Stiles stops.

“C’mon,” he told him, unlocking and opening the door. As usual, Dude pushes past him and into the house.

****

Stiles passes his sixteenth birthday a week after he figures out Dude is a wolf, and not long after Dude’s visits start to die off; he comes less and less often, and Stiles, who was starting to feel like he actually had a dog, a furry best friend, feels incredibly sad when he comes home to no black wolf at the stoop more often than not. About six months later, though, Dude starts showing up again, happy and cute as ever, and while Stiles is confused, he realizes he doesn’t know how wolves work (are wolves even common in California? He feels like they aren’t, especially black ones), and he’s gonna count his blessings, not question them.

Things – as things often do in Stiles’ life – get a little crazy (a _lot_ crazy) when, a couple of weeks before his seventeenth birthday, he wakes up to – not a wolf, but an amount of naked flesh, cuddled up to him where Dude fell asleep the night before. Stiles screams, a bit, flopping around and falling out of his bed, getting to his knees to see a naked – _Derek Hale_ , sitting up on his bed, eyes wide. He seems to realize something a second later, because he glances down at himself and squeaks, pulling sheets up around him just as Stiles’ dad opens the door.

“You oka – ” he starts, then stops, as he takes in the situation. Stiles glances back at forth between his dad and Derek, Derek looks at the Sheriff and Stiles before squeaking a little again and looking down, flushing a deep red, and the Sheriff stares at both of them for long moments before he sighs, setting his eyes on Stiles.

“You wanna come downstairs and explain – all of this – ” he gestures to the entire room, “As soon as – you’re both decent?” He glances to Derek one more time before closing his eyes, shaking his head, and closes the door, mumbling to himself.

“What the fuck,” Stiles says a couple of moments later, standing up. Derek looks like a deer caught in the headlights, eyes wide, face and neck still flaming red, his usual swagger and confidence gone, and it’s a little disconcerting, Stiles had never seen Derek Hale looking so out of his element.

“Um,” is all he manages to say, and Stiles sighs, tired and confused and feeling a little violated and _confused_.

“First, can you get dressed?” he asks, because – okay, because Stiles is getting a little distracted by a naked man in his bed, especially because that man is _Derek Hale_ , senior, captain of the basketball team and baseball team, and who also happens to go against all odds and be on the debate team and third in his class and as hot as his entire family and Stiles may have a complex about extremely attractive and intelligent people.

“Um,” Derek says again, “I don’t have any clothes?”

Stiles lets out a small, hysterical laugh at that because it seems _so absurd_.

“ _How_ did you get here, get in the house, into my bedroom, and my bed _without clothes_?” he questions, a bit frenetically, then stops because he realizes how perverted that all seems. He stares at Derek.

“Do I need to get my dad to arrest you?”

“It’s not really my fault?” Derek tries, but he looks so earnest in it that Stiles sighs and goes over to his dresser.

“Did someone play a prank on you or something?” he asks as he gets out a t-shirt and sweatpants, throwing them at Derek.

“Kind of,” he replies, pulling the clothes up to his chest. Stiles thinks he hears Derek whisper something like “Fate” under his breath, but he shakes it off because it’s just past six a.m. and he’s tired. Instead, he makes a gesture at Derek and tells him to get dressed and goes into the bathroom.

****

The two of them arrive downstairs a few minutes later, after Derek has put on some clothes and peed, Stiles mumbling in the background the entire time, trying to figure out an excuse for why there was a _naked Derek Hale_ in his bed, which is hard because he doesn’t really understand the situation himself and Derek isn’t very forthright with any information. Just before they get to the kitchen door Stiles stops, turns around to find Derek very much up in his space, and steps back a bit before sighing again.

“Follow my lead,” he tells him, and Derek nods, looking down a little and looking like a kicked puppy, and something snaps inside Stiles head and his eyes widen as a rush of breath comes out.

“Shit,” he says, just as his dad calls out, “I can hear you in the living room,” and it’s all Stiles can do to pull himself out of his thoughts to finish with a “And don’t speak unless you have to,” before leading Derek into the kitchen.

His dad is sitting at the island, up of coffee and newspaper in hand, as usual, but the way he looks up at Stiles as he walks in, Derek _right there behind him Stiles can feel him does the man know nothing about personal space_ – that’s not so usual. He looks a little scarred, a little stunned, a little confused, a little worried, and a bit angry, too.

“Coffee?” he offers, and Stiles notices that he’s not offering _him_ any – he’s looking at Derek, and Derek’s looking a little pale and scared, but he nods after a moment.

“Thank you – sir.”

“Mmm,” the Sheriff says, getting up, “Sit.”

They both do as the Sheriff gets out a mug and pours some coffee in it.

“Black?”

“Yes – sir,” Derek nods again, taking the cup as the Sheriff hands it over. Stiles notices that his hands are shaking ever so slightly, and his mind jumbles through the reasons – excuses – he has for his dad, which are changing rapidly ever since –

“So,” his dad says, sitting back down in his own stool, pausing for a moment and looking at Stiles, who opens his mouth to blurt out _something_ , but his dad beats him to it.

“Did you not want to tell me about this because – ” and he gestures at Derek, whose sitting there sipping his coffee with wide eyes, “Stiles, you know I’d accept you whoever you want to date, right?”

“Dad,” Stiles starts to explain, then realises that he can milk that, if he wants; it’s not like he can really come up with a better excuse than “yeah, we’re dating, I was scared to tell you because he’s a dude”. He could tell his father the truth, but the thing is – he may not be good friends with Derek, but they’ve had a handful of conversations, and he likes Derek alright, and he doesn’t want him getting arrested. And he knows his dad well enough to know that if he tells him that “oh, I don’t know, Derek just showed up and I was as shocked as you to wake up to him, naked, in my bed” that there will be some arresting going on. And the pranking idea; well, that just seems so incredibly unlikely to have actually happened. And the more Stiles thinks about it, the more he thinks he might know – crazy as his theory seems, it seems like an _actual possibility_.

“Yeah,” Stiles decides after just a moment, looking down at his hands, “I was uh – we’ve been dating for just a little while, and I was scared to tell you because – ”

“Stiles,” the Sheriff interrupts, voice soft, and Stiles glances over at Derek, looking even more shocked than before, like he didn’t expect Stiles to go with something like _that_ , before looking to his dad.

“I love you no matter who you want to date, okay?” his dad waits for him to nod before going on with a look to Derek, “I am not opposed to any of this, as long as you are being safe and using condoms – ” Stiles chokes at that, and he can tell Derek isn’t expecting it either, face flushing, “And please, make sure to be dressed any time I am in the house.” He sighed, looking between Stiles and Derek, both of whom are staring at him with wide eyes and blushing faces. He chuckles.

“And Derek?”

“Yes sir?” Derek is quick to answer.

“Come over for dinner some time. I’d like to get to know the man who’s dating my son, especially when I work with his mother on a regular basis.”

Being the city commissioner of Beacon Hills, of course Talia Hale works with the Sheriff regularly. That doesn’t mean that Derek remembered that, and he looks a bit more shocked at that news (Stiles hadn’t remembered either until his dad brought it up, so he’s a bit shocked too).

“Yes, sir,” Derek confirms, and then he glances at the clock, “Um, sorry, sir, as nice as it’s been to meet you, I really need to get home to get ready for school.”

The Sheriff nodded, holding his hand out.

“Nice to meet you too,” he replies as Derek hesitatingly shakes his hand, “You need a ride back?”

“Um,” Derek startles at that, then shakes his head, “My car is parked just down the road, actually.”

The Sheriff hums, nods, and looks down at his paper as Derek and Stiles both get up, go out into the living room. Stiles waits until they’re right by the front door, then talks in a low voice.

“You don’t have any shoes.”

Derek looks surprised again, as he has so many times in the last half hour, and glances down at his feet before shrugging.

“No. I’ll be okay.”

“Do you even actually have a car parked down the road?”

“No,” Derek admits again, “It’s okay, I can get home without a car. It’s just – just a few minutes through the woods.”

Stiles stares at Derek, scrutinizing him.

“You sure you don’t want a ride back?”

Derek shrugs again. “It’ll take me less time to get there on foot.”

Which – Stiles has suspicions, and the more he talks to Derek, the more they’re getting confirmed. He pauses, purses his lips, and looks at Derek carefully.

“Dude, huh?” he says, to which Derek physically jerks, staring back at Stiles.

“I, uh, I really do have to get home. I’ve got a debate meeting to get to before school starts.”

Stiles snorts, running a hand through his hair.

“’Course you do. Nerd.” He doesn’t mean it in an offensive way, and Derek doesn’t seem to take it in one, either; he seems to relax at the term, actually, giving a barely-there smile.

“We need to talk, though,” Stiles continues, and Derek sighs, nods.

“No lacrosse practice tonight, right?” he asks, and Stiles nods, “Then how about I meet you at your jeep after school, we can go to my house.”

Stiles nods again, then senses his dad moving in the kitchen, and gives a little sigh, reaching out to take hold of Derek’s shoulder with a “go with it”, and gives him a small kiss. Derek does go with it, until Stiles hears his dad clear his throat from the doorway to the kitchen, and he opens the front door as Derek looks over to his dad with those wide eyes, whispering “see you later,” which Derek affirms before he’s out the door. Stiles watches him for just a second until Derek hits the driveway, then turns and raises an eyebrow at Stiles. It’s then that he closes the door, looks over to his dad.

“So Derek Hale, huh?” he asks, and Stiles nods, glances out the front window to see that Derek is gone.

“Derek Hale,” he repeats.

“Good boy,” the Sheriff nods, crossing his arms, “Comes from a good family.” He pauses, looks at Stiles, who looks back with raised eyebrows and a bit of a nervous smile.

“Y’know, you could’ve done a hell of a lot worse than Derek Hale.”

“I know,” Stiles replies, running a hand through his hair, sighs, “I just…”

Stiles allows himself to be pulled into a hug by his father.

“I love you, no matter what.”

Stiles laughs a bit as he hugs his dad back.

“Even if I become an axe murderer?”

The Sheriff laughs in response.

“I’d have to arrest you, but even then.”

Stiles may not be being truthful about what’s going on with Derek and him (mostly because, theories aside, he actually _doesn’t know_ what’s going on with Derek and him), but it’s very nice to know that his dad does accept him, no matter what.

***

“What.”

That’s all Scott has to say when Stiles recounts the morning to him, face shocked as he pulls out his English book. Stiles gives a small laugh, nodding in agreement.

“I know.”

“How did – what – I mean,” Scott tries, all of which are things that have been running through Stiles’ head since he was very rudely awaken two hours ago.

“Right? Like, I don’t even know where to begin, I wish we would’ve had more time this morning to talk but – ”

“But I mean,” Scott interrupts, shaking his head, “I mean, _why_ did you go with the dating thing? Why not just tell your dad you don’t know what’s going on either?”

“Hmm,” Stiles starts, closing his locker and giving Scott _a look_ , “I told you, Derek looked just as shocked and scared as I felt. I don’t think he knew what was going on any more than any of us. I didn’t want him to like get arrested for something _he_ didn’t understand was happening. Which – you know my dad. Super protective. I thought it was the best excuse? I was tired, give me a break, I couldn’t think of anything else.”

“So it _was_ like a prank or something?” Scott asks as they start to walk to class.

“I think?” Stiles shrugs, “Anyway, I’m going to his house tonight to talk about this, I dunno, figure out what happened and all that. Then I’ll just tell my dad we broke up, so we don’t have to worry about _that_.”

“You’re – ” Scott starts, but then Allison comes up beside him, and that conversations done for now, Stiles thinks as Scott greets his girlfriend with a huge smile and a bit too much PDA.

***

They don’t get around to finishing the conversation before lunch, and at lunch, just as Stiles is sitting down at their usual table (him and Scott, plus Allison and Isaac and Lydia, and because of Lydia, Jackson and Danny, and because of Jackson and Danny, sometimes a couple of other lacrosse players) another tray is sat next to him on the side Scott isn’t on and Derek Hale is sitting down with a sort-of hello-ish sounding grunt.

“Yo,” Stiles greets him, glancing over to see the rest of the table is watching the two of them. It’s common knowledge that he and Derek are pseudo-friends, but honestly, the whole sitting with each other at lunch thing – definitely new, definitely a bit weird. As far as he knows, only Scott and Allison know about what happened that morning (because as far as he knows, there is absolutely _nothing_ Scott keeps from Allison. He’d be more angry about it but Scott is absolutely devoted to Allison, and she loves him just as much, so it’s all okay, he supposes), so for the rest of them, it’s even more disconcerting.

“What’s up?”

“Don’t forget you’re coming to my house after school,” Derek tells him, shooting the others a quick smile as they continue to stare (or, continue to stare as they all pretend to be in other conversations; Stiles can say a lot about his friends, but subtlety is not their strong suit). Stiles sees Lydia's eyebrows raise at that, and Jackson makes a bit of a face, and Isaac snorts.

“As if I could forget,” he replies, and Derek takes a breath, looks around the table again to see everyone still watching them, and leans in to whisper, which – which makes Stiles flinch a bit until he realizes what Derek is doing, and even then it’s weird, having Derek Hale whisper in his ear.

“My mom’ll be there. We think we know what’s going on.”

Stiles gives him a look as he pulls back.

“That’s very cryptic,” he informs Derek, who gives a half-smile as he gets back up.

“You’ll see why,” he grabs his tray, “See you later.”

Stiles watches him leave for a moment, go back over to sit with his friends, and when he turns back he finds _his_ friends all staring at him.

“You’re dating Derek Hale?” Lydia is the first to ask, everyone else (besides Allison and Scott, who are unhelpfully giggling at the question) looking to him with anticipatory faces, as if his love life is of _that_ much interest. Stiles’ eyes widen and he glances back over at Derek, who’s talking to Erica Reyes, his best friend (who everyone thought was also his girlfriend until she started dating Vernon Boyd, a fellow basketball player) and his sister, Cora, who’s Stiles’ age.

“Um,” he starts, turning back to Lydia with a shake of his head, “Absolutely not. As if.”

“You’ve had a crush on him for ages,” Lydia reminds him, because that’s something she knows (definitely the most popular person in their class and perhaps the school, along with her being the smartest person in the school, she somehow also was the most _omniscient_ person in the school; she knew everybody’s business, all the time). Granted, it probably isn’t that hard to figure out he has a crush on Derek Hale, he’s pretty sure half their grade knows, and definitely all his friends do, by the looks they’re giving him.

“The only ‘as if’ in that scenario is ‘as if you could ever pull someone _that_ out of your league’,” Jackson inserts. Lydia, helpfully, glares at him.

“We’re not dating,” Stiles asserts, giving Jackson a glare of his own, “It’s just – a – project.”

“Which is the exact excuse I give to my parents if I have a boyfriend over I don’t want them to know about,” Danny inserts, _not_ so helpfully.

“Except that his dad already thinks that they’re dating,” Scott says brightly, also not helping at all. Stiles smacks his arm.

“This sounds like a good story,” Lydia pushes her tray away, sets her elbows up and intertwines her fingers, setting her chin on those fingers, looking way too interested.

“Swear to god, just a project, my dad’s just confused about it,” Stiles tries, picking up a fry from his tray.

Scott and Allison, _very unhelpfully_ , start laughing again, and Stiles glances over to Derek’s table once more to see Derek looking back at him.

“Definitely something going on,” Isaac speaks up, and Stiles groans.

****

As promised, when Stiles walks out to his jeep after the last bell, Derek is leaning against it. He’s wearing sunglasses and has his bag slung over his shoulder and is holding his signature leather jacket, the weather a bit too warm for him to be wearing it, and looking at his phone, and Stiles has a small moment of _what the hell has he gotten himself into_ before he remembers that none of this is his fault, actually. Derek looks up with a smile as Stiles approaches.

“Hey,” he says, and Derek nods in greeting.

“Follow me?” Derek asks, gesturing towards the sleek black Camaro sitting a few parking spots over. Stiles, of course, already knew that Derek has the best car in the lot, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t swoon a little bit looking at it.

“Would rather ride with you, to be honest,” he replies, giving his baby a little pat to let her know that he loves her, but c’mon, a _Camaro_. Derek laughs.

“Maybe someday,” he says, which makes Stiles raise an eyebrow a bit, but Derek’s already heading over to his car, where Cora is sitting in the passenger seat. He gets into his own car, throwing his backpack into the passenger side, and starts it up.

Stiles has never really _been_ to the Hale House except maybe once when he was quite a bit younger, back when his mom was still alive, to that dinner party the Hale’s had thrown in honour of his dad becoming the new sheriff. He doesn’t remember that much, though; most of his knowledge of the house comes from rumours around the school. Though lately there haven’t been many parties there (both Derek and Cora aren’t really into planning parties), it was Laura Hale’s shtick before she graduated a few years earlier. Not many people still in school had ever been to those parties, but it was well known that the Hale House was the only mansion in Beacon Hills, a very old, historic house; the Hale family had been living in Beacon Hills for as long as anyone could remember, generations. Other than that, he just knows what he can see from the road, from passing by the house a handful of times.

It’s even more impressive up close; large, sprawling across a clearing in the woods, surrounded by trees on all sides. It’s well off the road, a long driveway leading up the huge brick and white mansion. He parks his car and gets out as Cora and Derek do in front of him, fully aware of his jaw, dropped. Not only is the house nice, no, that he could live with; it’s the _cars_ that are parked throughout the driveway. His jeep is pretty nice, in good condition no matter how old she is, but she looks a little like _trash_ compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of sports cars in the driveway.

“Mine’s the Mustang,” Cora points it out, the bright red Mustang parked closest to the house. He’s only seen her drive it a handful of times, mostly she gets rides with Derek, and it’s in almost mint condition from what he can tell.

“That’s my grandmother’s,” Derek points to the Mazda parked in the garage, “My mom’s,” he nods to the Corvette, “Dad’s,” the Aston Martin, which made Stiles gasp, “Laura’s,” which was Challenger, and finally, “And that’s my uncle and aunt’s” he said about the last car, some sort of Audi.

“If it were possible for me to marry a car,” Stiles comments, making both Cora and Derek laugh.

“C’mon,” Derek says, leading the way toward the house, and Stiles follows with one last glance back at the most beautiful car collection he’s ever seen.

The inside of the house is gorgeous and open and – and full of people, Stiles quickly realizes. As soon as Derek shuts the door behind him a little kid comes running out with a cry of “Cora! Derek!” and Cora drops her bag and swings him up, resting him on her hip.

“Hey, Jordan,” she greets him, then turns to Stiles, “This is Stiles, he’s a friend from school,” she introduces him, “Stiles, this is our little brother, Jordan.”

“Hey, buddy,” Stiles smiles at Jordan, who claps his hands and hides his face in Cora’s neck. Cora cocks her head to the side for a moment then turns to Derek.

“Mom’ll be down in a second,” she tells him, which, what? Stiles has pretty good hearing, and he didn’t hear a thing, how could Cora have known that?

“C’mon, you want something to eat or drink?” Derek asks, leading the way through what Stiles guesses is a living room to the kitchen.

“Um, some water, if you have any?”

“Of course we do,” another voice says as they enter the kitchen, and Stiles jumps a bit before seeing Laura Hale at the island, leaning against the counter and sipping coffee. She had graduated the year before Stiles was a freshman, but she, much like all the Hale’s, was well known around town, and he instantly recognizes her. She smiles (or more like smirks) at him.

“Stiles Stilinski, huh?” she asks, and Stiles swears Derek growls a little as he drops his bag near the island, glaring at her.

“Laura,” he warns, but Laura just smiles (smirks) at him.

“Mom’s coming, anyway,” she tells him. Derek takes a deep breath, going over to the cupboard as Stiles stands, taking the exchange in with wide eyes.

“Fruit water okay?” Derek asks, and Stiles sees him holding up a jug filled with what looks like water and a variety of citrus, and he nods.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Talia Hale, who Stiles instantly recognizes, arrives in the doorway to the kitchen just as Derek is handing over the water, he and Laura seemingly having a fight with their eyebrows instead of words, if Stiles’ eyebrow-reading skills are any good.

“Stiles Stilinski,” she greets him, and Stiles nearly chokes on the water he’s just taken a drink of in his haste to nod with a “Ma’am.”

“Talia will do,” she smiles at him, looking much warmer and friendlier than Laura’s smirk of a smile, “It’s so nice to see you, it’s been years. You look so much like your mother.”

Stiles smiles brightly at that, because people usually say he takes after his dad, and much as he loves taking after his dad, he also thinks himself that he looks a lot like his mother used to. It’s nice, to get that confirmation.

“Anyway,” Talia says, bright smile roving over to look at Derek and Laura also, “Shall we move this meeting to the living room?”

They all move out there, Laura leading the way and Talia and Derek taking up the rear, and Stiles thinks he hears Talia ask Derek if his “best friends are coming?” to which Derek replies “Yeah, of course, they’ll be here soon”. Cora and Jordan are already in the living room, sitting on one part of the couch, and there’s someone who Stiles recognizes as Patrick Hale, Derek’s dad, sitting in one of the other chairs. He gives Stiles a wave as Laura grabs the other end of the couch, curling up with her coffee. Talia comes up behind Stiles, gestures.

“Take a seat, why don’t you?” Stiles chooses one of the overstuffed chairs, and Derek sits in the chair next to him, grinning a bit at Stiles, who smiles tentatively back, because it feels like something _big_ is going on, and it’s a bit nerve-wracking, all of this that has happened to him within the past nine or so hours. Talia doesn’t sit, instead standing at the front of the room, her smile never fading as she looks to Stiles again.

“My guess is you’d like to know what happened today.”

Stiles nods, but just before Talia says anything else he speaks up himself.

“Can I – ” he stops, bites his lip, not continuing until Talia looks at him encouragingly, “This is gonna sound a bit stupid, but – ”

“Believe me,” Laura tells him, “Nothing is gonna sound weirder than the truth, so go ahead.”

Which makes Stiles more nervous, which Talia must sense because she sends her daughter a look.

“I just – are you a shapeshifter?” he turns to Derek to ask, who looks completely surprised, and there’s a moment’s pause before both Cora and Laura snort.

“At least you didn’t pick an oblivious idiot,” Cora says, which – _what?_ Theories are one thing, but to have them basically _confirmed_ – holy shit, no way.

“Shapeshifters?” Stiles asks, voice squeaking at the end. Talia pauses, opens her mouth to answer when there was a knock on the door. Laura jumps up with an “I’ll get it!” as Cora and Derek share a look, and not a moment later two big dogs – _no_ , Stiles recognizes them as wolves, one grey and one blonde – wander in, which _what?_ Wait, wait –

“Werewolves,” he breathes out, staring at the two of them, which – but the thing is, everyone’s laughing, delighted, or watching him with smiles, but he sees, they’re all nervous smiles, and he’s –

“Holy shit _werewolves_?” he asks, voice high again, as the blonde wolf comes over to him, licks his hand, and _god_ he should be more freaked out but to be honest he’s spent so long with _Dude_ – who he’s rapidly realizing was _Derek all along_ – that he doesn’t even _think_ anything about the fact that there are two wolves currently just wandering around in the house.

“Yeah,” Derek’s saying, watching the blonde wolf snuff against Stiles’ legs, the grey one sitting by the coffee table. Jordan is looking absolutely delighted, and then says, “Rica! Boy!” and _Stiles gets it_.

“Erica and Boyd?”

Erica happily licks at his hand again, and even Boyd moves, snuffing his snout.

“Oh my god.”

“Hmmm,” Talia says, looking a bit disapprovingly at Erica and Boyd, but then Erica’s going over to her and Stiles swears to god that she _smiles_ the best a _wolf_ can. Laura’s laughing at her antics, coming back into the room with some clothes, some of which she gives to Erica and some of which she gives to Boyd, the two of them carefully snatching the clothes with their mouths and padding out to the kitchen.

“Oh my god,” Stiles repeats, and Derek reaches over, touches his arm lightly.

“You okay?” he asks, then twitches a bit, smiling with a, “Dude?”

“Fucking hell,” he says, blinking rapidly, “Like – you guys turn into wolves? All of you?”

“Not always wolves,” Talia replies, smile on her face, “Derek? Cora?” and Stiles looks back over at the two of them, watching as they transform into – into something not completely human but not completely wolf, either. Mostly, it’s pointy ears and a little extra hair. Derek loses most of his eyebrows as Cora’s grow thicker, and they both open their mouths to reveal extra sharp teeth, and Stiles catches Derek’s fingernails grow longer, thicker and sharper too, which – _it’s all a bit like holy fucking shit_.

“Okay,” Stiles nods, eyes wide, as Erica and Boyd walk in, human form and fully clothed, Erica smiling widely.

“I like you,” she informs Stiles, sitting down on the loveseat and pulling Boyd down next to her, “Most humans are a bit scared of me in my wolf form.”

“Yeah,” Stiles does his best to give her a smile in return before looking back over at Derek, “I think _Dude_ helped me a little with that.” He pauses as Derek grins hugely, but he still looks a bit nervous, which _he totally should_ because wait a second.

“Not gonna lie, that’s a bit creepy that you’ve been hanging out with me as a wolf.”

Derek flinches, but nods.

“I mean, half of that you thought I was dog, so.”

“You’ve seen me naked!” Stiles’ eyes widen even more as he realizes this, and Derek flinches even more, shrugs this time.

“To be fair, it wasn’t really my fault, any of it.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Stiles demands, because _that’s_ kind of creepy and Stiles doesn’t care if werewolves exist, that’s cool and awesome and that’s all _it’s just Derek?_ If Derek’s creeping on him – nope, he kind of wishes he’d had his dad arrest him, now.

“You’re his mate,” Erica says, shrugging like it’s no big deal, except.

“Mate?”

“Soulmate for ‘wolves,” Talia suggests, the smile on her face leaving to settle into scrutinizing, “It’s rare for ‘wolves to _ever_ find their mates, even rarer for a ‘wolf to find their mate before they’ve fully developed.”

“Which happens around age twenty,” Laura speaks up, “Until then, it’s very hard or nearly impossible to control impulses like finding and needing to be around your _mate_.”

“Which,” Stiles starts, trying to make sense of this, “I am for you?” he asks Derek specifically, who nods.

“I – I didn’t really know it until a few months after I turned sixteen, and I was able to stave it off for a couple more months after that. And – and I didn’t discover I was even - y'know, turning into a wolf and finding you - until long after _that_. I think we figured it out just after _your_ birthday.”

“That was when you stopped showing up quite as often.”

“Laura was keeping an eye on me,” he nods, “But I – my wolf – figured out how to get around her, and I – ”

“You left all the time, though, even to shut windows and doors – ”

“I turned to my human form to get out,” Derek shakes his head, “I’m not sure how I didn’t notice it at first, but being not in control of my wolf around you quite yet – ”

“His mind was a bit fuzzy those first few months, even in human form,” Talia supplies, “Finding your mate – it’s intense, especially when you’re not of age.”

“Unless, of course, your mate is also a ‘wolf of your pack,” Erica says, nudging against Boyd, and Stiles’ eyes shoot to them.

“You guys are – ?” he asks, and Boyd smiles softly, looking at Erica as they both nod.

“I – this is all a lot. I was going to talk to you, eventually, after I got it under control a bit more, ask you out and do this the right way, but – I was startled, this morning, let myself sleep instead of leaving.” Where’s Derek’s been looking at Stiles the entire time, he looks down at his own hands, now. “I, uh, understand then, if you don’t want to have anything to do with me, because – it’s a lot to take in. Werewolves and mates and – and all of it.”

“Fuck that,” Stiles tells him, because if they’re all being honest here, why shouldn’t he? Derek looks up at him quickly, searching his face, and Stiles carefully looks back at him, tries to ignore the other people in the room because he’s not good with his feelings, especially not when he has an audience.

“I’ve been half in love with you for ages, and the whole werewolves thing is nothing but absolutely _awesome_ , are you kidding me.”

Derek looks so hopeful, and Stiles is not okay with crushing his dreams.

“The mates thing – that’s a bit much, right now, but dating you? Seeing if it works out? I’m more than okay with that, I’ve been okay with that for like _years_.”

He can hear Laura and Erica and Cora laughing, but he’s focused on Derek, who’s smiling softly and staring back at Stiles with an expression that makes him feel… _loved_. _Wanted_.

“The consent thing is the only thing I’m a bit freaked out about, to be honest,” he admits, scrunching up his nose a bit, because it _is_ weird, thinking that Dude has been Derek all along. Derek mirrors his facial expression.

“For me too,” he says, sighing, “I wish I could – but it wasn’t possible, it was out of my control too.”

Stiles nods, because he thinks he kind of understands – maybe not completely, he’s not a werewolf, he doesn’t have a _mate_ , but he thinks – it’s more about instincts, he thinks, so it’s not – it’s not _really_ Derek’s fault.

“So if I asked you out…” Derek starts, and Stiles smiles, big.

“I would say yes,” he replies, then laughs, “You know, I told you a lot when you were Dude. I think it’s time I learn a little about you, too.”

Derek smiles, and it all seems great until Erica interrupts with “Wait, wait. Are you saying that you named Derek’s wolf form _Dude_?”

Stiles looks over to her, a little embarrassed, “I needed to call him _something_ , and it was the first thing that came to mind.”

“But Dude?” Laura says this time, looking at Stiles like she’s not so sure about him anymore, “You couldn’t get more creative than ‘Dude’?”

“Hey,” Derek speaks up, glaring at all of them, “I thought it was kind of cute.”

Derek had taken his hand off Stiles’ arm when he’d half-shifted, but his arm was still hanging over the armrest of his chair, just a few inches from Stiles’, and he went with his instinct and reached out to grasp at Derek’s hand. Derek twitches for a moment before he realizes what Stiles is doing, and then his smile is bright enough to light up the entire room – like, Stiles has seen Derek smile a lot, he’s pretty sociable, he’s seen the small smile lots, he’s seen the bright amused smile, he’s seen the friendly smile. This smile is something completely different – something that makes Stiles feel like he’s made Derek’s life, or at least his day.

It’s easily the most gorgeous smile he’s ever seen on anyone.

The moment is a little ruined by Erica and Cora pretending to gag.

“Stiles,” Talia speaks up, and Stiles jumps a little, almost having forgotten she was there, she was so quiet. Her smile is back, but it’s more cautious, more careful.

“More than anything, though, is that we need you to keep this a secret,” she says, “There are people – there are a lot of people who wouldn’t react like you. Some of those people would want to hurt us, some of them would want to – and sometimes do – experiment on us.”

“I promise, I won’t tell anyone,” Stiles agrees readily; honestly, he hadn’t even been _thinking_ of telling anyone, not even Scott, and especially not now, because this is too much, too much to believe without seeing, and much too big to go around telling everyone.

Talia watches him for another moment before her smile, too, becomes a bit more full-blown, and she nods.

“Well, if you’re going to giving Derek a chance…welcome to the pack.”

Which, Stiles learns quickly, being welcomed to the pack pretty much means hugging everyone and lots of sniffing.

“Scenting,” Derek whispers to him when Stiles looks at him a little overwhelmed.

Other things Stiles learns that evening about werewolves? Heightened senses (according to Derek and Cora and Erica and Boyd, they could hear everything he and his friends had talked about that day, and haha look now they _were_ dating and Stiles totally glares at them because Erica and Cora and even Boyd are laughing at him for that conversation), a very quick healing process (Laura, apparently kind of a badass, _breaks her own leg_ to show him just how quick the healing is), super strength (“not super, we’re not in a comic book” Derek had groaned when Stiles had nicknamed it that), all on top of the ability to _actually shift into wolves_.

“We’re also pretty damn good in bed,” Erica informs him smugly, and Stiles’ eyes widen, determinately not thinking about sex with Derek because apparently, ‘wolves can also _smell_ feelings. It’s as he’s trying to _not_ think about sex with Derek that he realizes that –

“Wait,” he says to the group as a whole, who’re discussing dinner now, “Can I even technically be in a pack if I’m a human?”

“I’m human,” Patrick speaks up, only the second set of words Stiles’ has heard him say since he arrived.

“And he’s my second,” Talia confirms, then her eyebrows go down, “We haven’t explained hierarchy to you yet, have we?”

“We have lots of time,” Derek speaks up, getting up and pulling Stiles up too, “Can we maybe – maybe have some time to ourselves?”

“Ooooh,” Erica says, smirking, and Derek rolls his eyes at her as Talia smiles softly again, nodding.

“Can you stay for dinner, Stiles?” she asks, and Stiles nods.

“My dad’s working the evening shift anyway.”

“Okay,” Derek breaks in, pulling at Stiles, who laughs a little bit because he feels light and happy, even if he’s still pretty confused about the werewolves and the mates and all of it, he’s _happy_. He fully expects Derek to take him to his bedroom or something, but instead, he pulls him out of the house, out to the woods.

“Hmm,” Stiles states. He feels very comfortable around Derek, but it still feels a little awkward, because just a bit ago he was pretty much telling Derek he was in love with him and now – they’re alone, and Derek’s smiling happily and it’s bound to be a little awkward, right.

“Away from prying ears,” Derek explains as they head out onto a well-worn path.

“Mmm,” Stiles agrees, glancing back at the house, “Just how far can you guys hear?”

“In perfect conditions…pretty far? It’s usually not perfect conditions, though; things like walls and door and even sparse woods and other noises get in the way, a lot,” Derek replies, then glances back himself before smiling again, looking over at Stiles as they walk, “So, half in love with me, huh?”

Stiles thinks he should be like, a little embarrassed about it or something, but to be honest, he doesn’t.

“Yeah,” he responds instead, shrugs, and Derek’s laughing as he glances back at the house again before pulling Stiles behind a tree, boxing him in a bit.

“So,” he says, and Stiles lets back a bit of a breathy “So”.

“Can I kiss you?” he asks, and Stiles laughs, reaches up to put his hands on Derek’s neck, pull him close.

“Like you have to ask.”

And he kisses him.

****

The next day, at lunch, Stiles sits down with his friends, and only moments later Erica and Boyd sit down, as all of Stiles’ friends stare, and then Derek sits down next to Stiles, leans over to kiss him in greeting. It takes a couple of moments, but Isaac is the first to speak up with “So you’re totally not dating, huh?”

Stiles groans as Derek laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> so do y'all think I should do a sequel to this or no...? I'm leaning towards yes, but it'd be a few weeks before I even started on it.  
> find me at [asocialfoxpaw](http://asocialfoxpaw.tumblr.com/) or [onedirectionaremyfirstlove](http://onedirectionaremyfirstlove.tumblr.com/)


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